Wow...what a battle in Union tonight!  The Cougars are able to get a signature win and get the all-important district seeding win but end up with a player getting hurt that will definitely have an impact on the Cougars the next 3-4 weeks.

The first half saw Ryle start strong with their attack.  The Raiders were able to get into the attack and produce some shots but nothing dangerous.  The Cougars needed some time to settle in and about 20 minutes in they started to move better on the attack.  In my opinion there were not very many promising scoring opportunities for either team in the first half and the game was 0-0 at the half.  

Ryle looked a little hungrier in the second half and take advantage of a throw in into the box, the Cougars miss the clear, Wagner punches it out, but it lands at the feet of a Raider who buries the shot in the side netting to put Ryle up 1-0.  Conner would battle back and get a clearance to the left side of the field, Golika Masoluka makes a pass to Mason Ginn who is able to get the defender to bite on a fake and starts to attack the goal.  The Ryle defender catches Ginn but not before Ginn is able to toe poke it towards the goal which goes off the shin of the Ryle defender and finds the foot of a crashing Clark Peterson for the equalizing goal.  Conner 1 Ryle 1.  Conner gets another chance to score but miss the goal wide to keep the game tied.  Ryle started to feel the pressure and a yellow card is issued in a good area of the field for the Cougars to take advantage of it.  Brayden Cranfield steps up and is able to loft a beautiful ball in the box which finds the head of Grady Noble to give the Cougars a 2-1 lead.  Unfortunately, a little later the Cougars are attacking again, and the ball is on the foot of Ginn who is challenged hard by the Ryle defense and he suffers a foot injury and had to leave the game.  The Cougars would have another chance to put the game away off a break away from Noble on the right side.  Noble is able to beat the defender and takes a shot that just goes wide of the goal to keep Ryle in the game with less than 4 minutes to go.  Ryle would continue to press, but the Cougar defense did just enough to secure the win over the Raiders.  

WOW! Big win!

Hope Mason heals quickly…..

Just to put this win in perspective…Ryle had won 24 games in a row verses NKY competition. The last time they loss to a NKY team was 9/13/22, a 3-1 loss to Dixie Heights. That was an impressive run.